94 



THE CORDILLERA. 



whole country in the neighbourhood is under high cul- 

 tivation. At Whitsuntide a great fair is held at the town, 

 when thousands assemble hither from Mexico and the 

 adjoining district. The lengths to which gambling is 

 carried on at the monte tables of St. Augustin, at that 

 season of festivity, are almost incredible. Many of the 

 once wealthy families of this country have been beggared 

 by giving themselves up to a taste for this witless game 

 of headlong chance. 



No language of mine can give you a just idea of the 

 scene from the neighbouring heights. They command 

 a view of vast extent over the southern portion of the 

 valley, with the broad plain, the distant lakes Xochimilco 

 and Chalco, various groups of volcanic hills in the middle 

 ground, and the wall of mountains surmounted by the 

 snowy summits of Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl on the 

 horizon. 



The AjuscOj a compact mass of porphyritic rock, soar- 

 ing to the height of thirteen thousand feet above the 

 Pacific, rises directly in the rear. It is the highest point 

 of the eastern wall of the cordillera which girdles the 

 valley. 



In the view from this point, which I had more than 

 once the opportunity of examining in detail, nothing 

 struck me more than the great number of truncated cones 

 and volcanic summits within sight. 



Though there exists throughout this portion of the 

 continent positive proofs of the agency of internal fire, 

 in upheaving the whole of the table land of the Mexican 

 cordillera to its present extraordinary level, an exami- 

 nation of the continent would seem to indicate that the 

 forces set in action by igneous agency, have been more 

 active in one particular direction than another ; that is, 

 along a nearly right line of no great breadth, enclosed be- 

 tween 18° and 20° of north latitude. Commencing with 

 the volcano of San Martin de Tuxtla, on the shore of the 

 gulf, thirty-six leagues south of Vera Cruz, and moving 

 across the surface of the country, a little to the north- 

 west you find in succession — the gigantic cone of Orizaba, 



